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Boland’s Mill is Located on the Grand Canal Dock 0n the South side of the Dublin City Docklands. The site includes several buildings including two six story warehouses dating from the 1830’s as well as other stone buildings located on Barrow Street which Date from the 1870s.

The majority of the site consisted of concrete silos which were built between 1940s and 1960s. The Mill stopped Production in 2001 and laid Derelict. In 2004 it was sold by Dublin Dockland Development Authority to Benton Properties for 42 Million Euro and had secured planning permission for 67 Apartments,some houses and 13,284 of Office and retail space as well as some leisure facilities.

NAMA took control of the site in 2012 and as of mid 2015 the site is undergoing a 150 million euro reconstruction . As of March 2017 the Concrete Silos have been demolished and work has started on the the renovation of all the listed Buildings – The two six story Warehouses that front on to the quay as well as 4 other smaller warehouses within the site and two private houses/Offices (33 34 Barrow Street) which are all protected structures.

There is also planning permission to build 2 new office blocks ( Block one 14 Storeys 53.65 m high and Block two 13 Storeys 49.85m high) . There is also permission to build a third block which will be a residential building fifteen storeys high and consist of 30 two bed and 2 three bed Apartments – All three blocks will have underground Parking -There is also planing for a civic waterfront square adjacent to the Dock and a second open space to the south of the site . Work is due to start on these mid 2017 .

The Howth 17 Footer is the oldest intact racing one-design class of Keel Boat in the world . The Plans were drawn up originally by Judge W. Herbert Boyd in 1897 . He, been a member of Howth Sailing club and been very familiar with the local rugged sailing conditions designed this gaff- rigged with jackyard topsail Keel Boat.

The Original fleet of five, Rita, Leila, Silver, Moon, Aura and Hera (still fully functional to-day) were built by John Hilditch in Carrickfergus Northern Ireland and sailed into Howth Harbour in April 1898. Another three boats were added to the fleet in 1900 Pauline, Zaide and Anita. The class increased in number again and by 1913, an additional nine boats were commissioned by Dublin Bay Sailing Club for racing from Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire) – Echo, Sylvia, Mimosa, Deilginis, Rosemary, Gladys, Bobolink, Eileen and Nautilus.

The class suffered two losses during the early and mid twentieth century – In 1915 “Silvia” was wrecked beyond repair during an exceptionally severe winter storm while she stood at the head of the slipway at the Royal Irish Yacht Club. And then in 1984 while taking part in a race from Howth to Dun Laoghaire “ Mimosa” sunk off the Baily Lighthouse in difficult South Easterly sea conditions. The quick and brave actions of fellow ‘seventeeners’ ensured that the tragic loss of the Mimosa did not extend to her crew.

The Class was reduced to 15 for much of the 1980’s. However in May 1988 two more boats Isobel and Erica were launched in Howth which restored the class to 17 boats after 73 years. The new Boats were built in a shed in Howth Castle and were the first ones of the class to be built in Howth.

A project to build another boat, that had been started early in the 21st century, was completed in May 2009. The boat was named ‘Sheila’ (following the tradition for many of the class to be given female names ending in ‘a’) after Shelagh Wilkinson, widow of Norman Wilkinson who was the sixth owner of ‘Leila’ for 51 years from 1948 to 1999.

I have enjoyed crewing on these Boats for the last 7 years and during this time I have tried to use my experience to photograph them. Because of the open Cockpit design the crew are very prone to getting wet and so I was limited to the Photographic equipment I could use. Most of my images were taken using a Nikonos-V underwater Camera with a 35mmNikor f2.5 Lens. I used Fujicolour PRO 400H Daylight colour Negative Film . Several of the images were shot using my Nikon D200 Digital Camera with a AF-S Nikkor18-200mm 1:3.5-5.6 G ED lens. I have uploaded a selection of my images which I hope you will enjoy. Further information about these Beautiful Boats can be found at http://www.hyc.ie/howthseventeen/default.asp